How'd it go today?

[biggun]

Tyson vs Roy Jones fight when I got up.

In the words of Snoop... ‘It’s like two of my uncles fighting at the family barbeque’.

Fire.

Cooked hot dogs on fire.

Pepperkakehus.

Now to cook tikka masala.

 

[stig]

I got all the holiday gifts sent off for my various friends in America today.
As usual I spent a fortune in postage and longed for the olden days of class 4 mail.

Then I got a call from a girl, who used to help us out, a friend of hers has inherited an old house on one of our more remote islands.
Would we be interested in coming over to do some treework.?
Betcha,I said.
What could be more fun than loading guys and gear,take the ferry to Ærø and spending a spring weekend doing treework , sightseeing and just hanging out together.
Might get the whole team, that was supposed to go to California next spring, before Corona nixed it, together for it,

 

[FireFighterZero]

Ahhh....the home of Carl Rasmussen.

 

[lxskllr]

Looks like a cool place stig. Should be a good time.

 

[lxskllr]

Debating on milling my apple, but don't really feel like setting everything up. It's also sunny and warm, which makes it less fun. I took a few wheelbarrow loads of rot and crap to the backyard, and moved some firewood around.

Realized I cut some of my locust too short. I wanted some rot resistant benches for the backyard, and totally forgot about it when I was working with the tree. I have some bases I can use that I haven't split yet, and I'll grab a piece of locust from work. I had cut it up for the boss to use as fenceposts, and then he didn't want them, so they're still in the woods. Just have to get them out.

It's gonna be a five day weekend this week. Rain tomorrow, so I won't bother going into work. Every week should have five day weekends :^)

 

[Frankie]

Hey gents ... I’m giving away a Fiskars maul on my channel Fabz Acres , just need to subscribe and enter a guess on the total number of pcs in the woodpile ... Whoever gets closest or nails it wins the maul ... NO COST to you ! Link :

 

[lxskllr]

Finished off the day with a Swedish candle, a glass of brandy, and a bottle of beer. It was really nice outside. Bright moon behind hazy clouds, like you might see on the Scottish moors, or at least that's what my imagination says :^P I took a picture, but of course it looks like absolutely nothing. Guess you had to be there.

 

[stikine]

Debating on milling my apple, but don't really feel like setting everything up. It's also sunny and warm, which makes it less fun. I took a few wheelbarrow loads of rot and crap to the backyard, and moved some firewood around.

Realized I cut some of my locust too short. I wanted some rot resistant benches for the backyard, and totally forgot about it when I was working with the tree. I have some bases I can use that I haven't split yet, and I'll grab a piece of locust from work. I had cut it up for the boss to use as fenceposts, and then he didn't want them, so they're still in the woods. Just have to get them out.

It's gonna be a five day weekend this week. Rain tomorrow, so I won't bother going into work. Every week should have five day weekends :^)

Not sure if you are into smoking fish/meats but apple is a great wood for that purpose.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

We interrupt my welding for an important announcement. I saw a decent deal on an F150 and we went and trailered it home. 3 hours out each way. They had it non opted. 1200.00 of his own hard earned money. His first work truck. 1987 EFI 6cyl.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

One happy/proud kiddo. Had him drive it up the driveway after i unloaded it to show his mama.

 

[Nutball]

Oh absolutely, at least in what they did there, which was very heavy mig welding. None of them could go layout a pipe fab or weld xray pipe, that's a different skill set. But some were very very skilled at what could be done in that environment. I eventually was unofficially moved to salvage welding, where you fix robotic, hand, and machining errors. And there i learned even more skills, many of which i use to this day such as extracting stuck taps, filling the holes back up, then drilling and tapping to the precise location needed, usually right in the exact same spot patience is definitely a virtue doing that.

How do you extract stuck taps (broken off I assume)?

View attachment 105361

Those mountains aren't real? Or are they clouds? Or what's the mirage?

 

[stikine]

I was wondering what those hills are as well Jim. Can you tell the geologic story of them?

 

[Tree09]

Depends on the tap and the hole. They make a tap extractor tool for straight flutes. You put the fingers down the flutes, tap the ring down as far as you can, and then twist it out. Doesn't always work, but sometimes it does.



Unfortunately most of the taps they used were the spiral ones because they tap under higher speeds better, so those don't work that well. If it broke off above the surface, you can spin a nut on and then ideally braze it on or maybe oxy weld, arc and mig welding usually will crack it because the taps are hardened. Basically the goal is more heat to soften it a bit so they won't crack on you. Tig welding might be an option with a foot pedal so you can linger and pour heat into it.

Using lots of lube helps, back then it was kroil. Now i heat it up and use paraffin wax, works way better. I also use 50/50 acetone and atf fluid as a generic penetration oil, mix it up in a Mason jar and use a chip brush to apply.

They also make tap burners for through holes (or not through holes if you are really good, and they actually burn just the tap out, but that's more of a machining tool and process. Failing everything else you can gouge the whole thing out and then weld it back up (i was dealing with very large, thick steel sections usually), which honestly can be quicker to just bite the bullet and do it because you get a better weld because it's open. They make narrow mig nozzles for welding in very tight areas like that, and you would start in the bottom of the hole, run hot as hell, and pour metal in there until it was proud of the surface, where you could grind it flat and mag drill it once you had it laid out again.

 

[Danthetree1]

Nice ride!

 

[Danthetree1]

Getting ready for my 5 hour trip to work. First tree this am is a big sweet gum. We are craning it but it is big. Its going to be a great day.

 

[Mick!]

Better get some sleep then!

Good luck.

 

[Danthetree1]

Fell asleep early. I feel rested right now....we will see how i feel at lunch though.

 

[cory]

Getting ready for my 5 hour trip to work.

Why so far?

 

[cory]

pour metal in there until it was proud of the surface,

Never heard that turn of phrase befoe.

You musta learned a boatload at CAT.

I don't recall, why'd ya leave?

 

[Tree09]

The pay. It used to be a $30+ an hour job, they broke the union down, went 2 tier pay scale, so i was $14. I made more as a first year pup in the fitters. The fitters also do far more critical welding, which is what i wanted. I wanted to be doing the xray critical work, pushing my abilities and seeing what i was made of. It was a very good call. Cat would have likely bored me to tears in time, but i could have moved up too, and maybe finished my engineering degree or something. But i likely wouldn't be as happy as i am now. Not to mention cat seems to be trying to move away, making a nomadic trade like the fitters actually have more job security.

 

[cory]

That must have been quite the battle, breaking the union at CAT.

"Trying to move away", you mean move production overseas to cheaper labor?

 

[lxskllr]

Forgot. I ran my PoulanPro a bit yesterday to cut up some small stuff, and it ran flawlessly. I got the 026 cause it was such a PITA to run, but now it seems to be doing fine. Every time I'd try to tune it, it would seem right, then start screwing up again. Maybe slamming it on the tailgate fixed it :^D Oh well, I still like the 026 1000% better. I don't know how they managed to make the PP feel so cheap, but they should quit it. Throw the extra $5 in, and make it like the older ones.

 

[Tree09]

Overseas or south. Lots of stuff to Mexico, then they can't do it right, so they bring the whole line back, study it more, then ship it out again rather than simply paying for semi skilled labor. There's a reason the average cat product works for 9 hours until it's first repair.

 

[cory]

Damn! Scathing!

 

[Danthetree1]

@cory my company got the city contract for Savannah GA. I'm pretty much in charge of getting the work done here.